Snarky Faith

When it comes to race, most white Americans are obsessed with two things: defending our own inherent goodness and maintaining our own comfort levels. Too often, this means white people assume that to be racist, one has to be openly hateful and willfully discriminatory—you know, a bad person. And we know we're good, Christian people, right? But you don’t have to be wearing a white hood or shouting racial epithets to be complicit in America’s racist history and its ongoing systemic inequality. In Good White Racist?, Kerry Connelly exposes the ways white people participate in, benefit from, and unknowingly perpetuate racism—despite their best "good person" intentions. Good White Racist? unpacks the systems that maintain the status quo, keep white people comfortable and complicit, and perpetuate racism in the United States and elsewhere. Join me as I wrestle with Kerry about how we're complicit in a culture of systemic racism. It's essential listening to a message that needs to be heard. You can find Kerry Connelly's new book, Good White Racist, here. You can also find out more about Kerry: www.kerryconnelly.com/ Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.   www.SnarkyFaith.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Damon Garcia is a leftist Christian living in Santa Maria, California. Through his vlogs, livestreams, and podcasts he's building an online community for post-religious, yet spiritually hungry nomads. Damon grew up in the evangelical church and was on the road to becoming a pastor when things took a different direction. The more he studied the radical ways of Jesus the more he became convinced that the church had tamed Jesus. This was around the time he stumbled into liberation theology and its' critique of capitalism and it changed his world. Join us today as we talk about his journey and how he's found an alternative way to minister according to his faith in an online community. You can find Damon Garcia here: YouTube channel Twitter Facebook Podcast Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.   www.SnarkyFaith.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Socialism is the boogieman of American Politics. Brought again to the forefront by Democratic Socialist, Bernie Sanders, it's a topic that needs to be discussed in an intelligent manner that's not shrouded in stereotypes, half-truths or memes. Today, let's have that discussion in regards to faith as we talk about Christian Socialism. This historical movement has been around since the mid-19th century and combined the fundamental aims of socialism with the religious and ethical convictions of Christianity. Do the tenants of Socialism gel with the teachings of Jesus? Join us as we try to find out. In this age of misinformation, it's important to continue to be awake, aware and look past all of the noise to be sober-minded and educated. Whether socialism is bad or good, it's up to us to shine lights onto the rumors and hearsay in order to see the truth. Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.   www.SnarkyFaith.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Truth is a word that frequently gets thrown around in Christian circles. "The truth is on our side." "We alone know God's truth." "I speak the truth in love." "There is only one truth." In those instances, the word is just used as a weapon against others. This kind of truth divides and it's not true at all. Over the centuries, faith leaders have learned how to harness the truth to manipulate others. Politics is the same way. Now we are living in an age of misinformation where there's 'real news' and 'fake news.' People from both sides claiming absolute truth and calling the others liars. All of this leads us to division and ultimately chaos. In a time where it's hard to know what and who to believe, we need to speak out. We need to learn to tell our stories and own our truth. It's an act of bravery and a simple one at that. For too long, we've let other people hold the microphone and tell us how to think or what to believe. It's about time, we start to take back our own stories and speak what we know. We need to learn again to speak the truth. Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world. www.SnarkyFaith.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Oh, Christianity, what has happened to you? When faith has become a game of preaching confidence, something is wrong. When there're answers for everything and we treat the Bible as a scientific textbook something is definitely wrong. It's all about certainty and we need to return to a place of mystery. Real faith is drenched in mystery. To embrace the ways of Jesus requires risk, imagination, hope, grace, and adventure. It embraces the world with an open hand. It tells us to remain open and awake. It shows us that we should be known for what we are for and not what we aren't. We need to return to our spiritual roots and rekindle the imagination as we embrace the mystery of it all. So be brave and courageous as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and transcend the limits of religion. Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.   www.SnarkyFaith.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” – Martin Luther King Jr. Love is at the heart of the Gospel. As followers of Jesus, we are called to love our enemies even at the risk of our own safety. Christianity not driven by love isn't Christianity at all.As we see the faithful being driven more by fear than love and Christianity is becoming more and more inert and inwardly focused. So let us look to history as a reminder of what a non-violent, but powerful love looks like. This type of love can impact real and lasting change. This week, as we remember and honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., let us reflect on his teachings of non-violence and how his faith drove his actions. Join us as we look at Dr. King's powerful principles of non-violence that are steeped in the ways of Jesus. These principals have the power to change us and how we engage the world around us. This legacy of love started by Jesus must continue on in this broken and polarized world. Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.   www.SnarkyFaith.com  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The show today is part one of a two-part show. If you missed part one, YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.  Join us as we continue to discuss the changing landscape of Christianity in American and abroad. From the beginning threads of Christian fascism to the recent assassination of a general in Iran, the Trump administration is not just pushing a political ideology, it's also pushing a theological one. Many of his advisors are end-times, apocalyptic nut jobs trying to tip the hand of fate and somehow trigger the second coming of Christ. It sounds crazy because it is. It would be easy to dismiss them as the conspiracy theory, far-right Conservative Christian lunatics, but they do have some influence over our clueless, bloated POTUS. We must remain vigilant and awake as the religious right continues to wield its power in politics and push this end-times nonsense. What will the future hold? Well, it's up to you to stand firm and oppose this. None of this has to do with Jesus, so why does Christianity get so tied up in it? Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world. www.SnarkyFaith.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The show today is part one of a two-part show Join us as we discuss the changing landscape of Christianity in American and abroad. With the rise of Christian fascism in Europe, there's similar posturing under the Trump administration. Many in the administration's orbit continue to move more ideologically towards theocracy. This may sound extreme, but the seeds of change have been planted for years by the religious right and the Moral Majority. Theocracy's a crazy conservative fever dream that some buy into, either in practice or perspective. We must remain vigilant and awake as the religious right continues to wield its power in politics. What will the future hold? Well, it's up to you to stand firm and oppose this. None of this has to do with Jesus, so why does Christianity get so tied up in it? Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world. www.SnarkyFaith.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Christianity Today's editor, Mark Galli, published his editorial about why Trump should be removed from office it sent shockwaves through the conservative community. While trying to seem even-handed in his assertions about Trump, the editor committed the unpardonable Evangelical sin, trash-talking the Orange Bloated Messiah. While some of the arguments rang true, it was still too careful and calculated. In a moment, it was almost like the grew a par, but they seemed to stop just short. Also, don't let the backlash against Christianity Today fool you. It's an exercise in missing the point too. To speak truth to power is a prophetic act, but Galli was speaking to the wrong persons of power. Trump's immorality and selfishness isn't the point. Trump's spent decades being a disgusting human being. The real issue should be about how Christianity lost its way and why they kowtowed so easily to the Grifter-in-Chief? Oh, Christianity, what have you become? It seems like Evangelical faith has become nothing more than a pro-life, pro-Israel and pro-religious liberty (for a select few) political organization. In its current form, the faith no longer lines up with the teaching of Jesus. Jesus prioritized the faith in simple, yet, comprehensive terms when he called his followers to, ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ and to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ For a faith grounded in love, where is the love now? That's really what Christianity Today should have been calling out.  Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world. www.SnarkyFaith.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Donald Trump ruins everything he touches and he always seems to know how to make things worse. I just that's just his spiritual gift. He's a King Midas that turns everything into 💩. When he signed an executive order aimed at tackling anti-Semitism on college campuses at a White House Hanukkah reception, he made sure to include Pastor Robert Jeffress who has said on numerous occasions that all Jews are going to hell. This is also the same president that continues to allow Stephen Miller, a known and documented racist, to remain within his administration. So today, let's take a deeper dive into Trump's new executive order and how it's corrosive, manipulative, and really has nothing to do with tackling anti-semitism. So while he's saying that he's a friend of the Jewish community, we've also seen anti-semitic attacks rise by 60% in the first year of his presidency. This is merely political double-talk that's being used to hide a racist president and the white nationalists base. Hanukkah should be a time to remember God's goodness and faithfulness, it shouldn't be sullied in such a way. In the same sense, Christmas is also a time to remember God's presence in the margins with the people that have been forgotten by the empire. The message of both of these holidays is that God is still with us and all of his creation matters. Let us all remember this and continue to do the work of the Lord laid out in Isaiah 61, ""The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."   Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.   www.SnarkyFaith.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.